Japanese man's odd interior decorating causes neighbors to evacuate

by Brendan Fitzgibbons on Fri, Nov 22, 2013

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An entire neighborhood in Furano, Hokkaido, Japan was forced to evacuate after their 57-year old neighbor asked authorities to remove a dangerous item that he had been using as a decoration from his home.

The man told authorities that he no longer wanted an old military shell that he had been using to decorate an alcove in his house, and that he was ready to dispose of it. As soon as he made the request, roughly 20 households in the town of Shintomi were forced to leave their homes while authorities properly removed the shell. The evacuation lasted for three and a half hours on Wednesday and the man was quoted as saying, “A relative brought this back from a battle zone. I had long been thinking about disposing of it eventually.” The shell is 28 cm long and 7 cm wide, and is said to be from the Imperial Japanese Army.